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12 October 2016

Fuad Gulubeyli – APA.Az

Azerbaijan has made sincere efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by peaceful means, Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu said answering a question from Azerbaijani MP Ganira Pashayeva during the PACE session on Wednesday, APA’s correspondent reported from Strasbourg.

Cavusoglu said Armenian troops’ withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories especially from the five districts has lately been on the agenda.

“Russia shared its efforts with us, and so did we. It’s because we support any solution that is in Azerbaijan’s interests. At the same time, we seek to mend our relations with Armenia. Why should this occupation continue?

Cavusoglu also stressed that the OSCE Minsk Group should ramp up their efforts.

The FM added that Turkey has also tried to normalize bilateral ties with Armenia, noting that an unsuccessful agreement was signed in Switzerland.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996. 

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.